


Auranis

by YouGoodFahm (drewwwbydoobydoo)



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Politics, Dystopia, Eventual Relationships, M/M, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Near Future, Totally not political commentary wink wink, Utopia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25029760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drewwwbydoobydoo/pseuds/YouGoodFahm
Summary: Roman and Remus are accepted to join Auranis, a protected and self-sustaining society that was founded within a country that had collapsed, leaving its citizens to fend for themselves. Now, the twins find themselves living a new type of life and try to navigate it as best they can.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	1. Leaving the Dust Behind

Roman rifled through the last drawer, making sure he didn’t forget something important. They needed to leave in the next ten minutes or so, and both of their bags were already basically packed, but he was double checking every inch of their tiny house just to be sure.

“Are you sure I can’t bring my radio? It’s going to be so boring without it,” Remus complained, holding up their nearly-broken radio that they had fixed about a year before.

Roman sighed and replied, “Yes, I’m sure. They say it very clearly in the pamphlet, take a look.” He grabbed the piece of folded paper from the top of the dresser and threw it at his brother, which was met with a groan.

He knew the contraband list by heart at this point, making sure that there would be absolutely no reason for them to be turned away before they even got the chance at a better life. No weapons (including knives, needles, sticks, guns, or anything else that could possibly injure someone), nothing that can start fires or produce heat, no radios or other pieces of technology, no drugs, no alcohol, and nothing made of glass.

The only things they could take were whatever clothes they were wearing, plus two pairs of pants, two shirts, two pairs of socks, two pairs of underwear, one set of sleepwear, one jacket, one pair of shoes, and two miscellaneous items, as long as it all fit in a backpack or similarly-sized bag. They could also bring a little food and water for the bus ride, but they had to finish it all by the time they arrived or would have to throw it out.

Roman shut the final drawer and turned to face his brother and their bags. He sighed and checked his watch. Only a few more minutes to go. He grabbed Remus’s bag and searched through it, giving it one last check before they headed out the door to be absolutely sure that he didn’t try to sneak any contraband inside.

Clothes, clothes, clothes, tennis ball, deck of cards. It seemed clear, but he’d check before they got on the bus as well just to be safe.

Roman then turned to his own bag to make sure he had everything. He had all the clothing, plus his large notebook that he’d written and drawn in since he got it four years ago. He also had his favorite pen, plus two apples, a chunk of bread, and a bottle of water for the two of them to share.

Roman looked down at his hands, which were rough from years of hard work. He had his mother’s ring on his right pinkie finger, which was the only finger it would comfortably fit on. Since he was wearing it, the ring wouldn’t be counted as a third miscellaneous item, hopefully. He wanted to remember her, and he’d worn the ring at nearly all times for the past three years.

Roman shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts and hoisted up his backpack, slinging it onto his shoulders. He then picked up his trusted pocketknife, which he had decided to take along as protection during their walk to the pick-up location but would bury in the sand before they got on the bus.

Remus picked up his own backpack and headed towards the door. The two of them said a silent goodbye to the place that had been their home for the past five years or so. It wasn’t much, but it had been theirs. Roman twisted the ring, and then headed out into the cool, dark air.

The stars were out and shining as usual, giving them enough light to see their way without tripping over any debris. They had about an hour until sunrise, which was when the bus would arrive.

The two brothers treaded lightly — which, in all fairness, was not particularly difficult on the sandy surface. Their boots naturally stepped over bottles and chunks of metal that had been cast all over by the high winds of the area.

Roman and Remus walked in silence, staying close to buildings and half-collapsed walls so they could duck behind them at a moment’s notice. Roman kept his pocketknife at the ready and both faced in different directions, scanning the area for any sign of danger. They had both been jumped many times before and certainly didn’t want to repeat the experience, especially not today.

After about half an hour of hiking, Remus signaled to Roman with a silent gesture that he saw patroller lights in the distance and pulled him into an alleyway so that they wouldn’t be seen. The patrol sweeps were never good, they were the last part of the Ocrium government remaining and they were notoriously cruel.

Roman shuddered as he remembered their mother, who had been killed by a patroller because she was looking through a dumpster for food and hadn’t heard them ride up to the alley. He twisted the ring around his finger until the lights had passed them by.

The two of them popped out from the alley and continued on the rest of their walk, luckily without much trouble. The sky lightened before their eyes, right along with Roman’s plan.

The sun had just barely started to cut over the hills in the distance when they reached the pickup area. The brothers saw a cluster of about two dozen other people positioned next to a sign that read “Auranis,” and both of their faces lit up with a hopeful grin.

Roman knelt down and dug a hole in the sand to bury his knife. He motioned for Remus to take off his pack so he could go through it again. Remus groaned but complied, and soon enough the two of them had their packs back on as they joined the rest of the group.

When the sky was finally the familiar pale blue of day, a light gray bus appeared on the horizon and drove towards the group, coming to a gentle stop in front of them.

Roman fidgeted with the hem of his dusty brown shirt and looked over at Remus, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet and whose eyes were gleaming with excitement.

The bus’s front door opened, and a woman stepped out. “Alright, as you board the bus, I’ll need to see your confirmation passes, so have those ready to go.” The crowd nodded, and Roman quickly got out the two passes from the front pocket of his bag. He handed one pass to Remus and kept the other in his hand, which was slightly shaking.

As the crowd made its way into a line that eventually moved onto the bus, Roman couldn’t help but give in to the infectious sense of excitement that permeated the air. Everyone seemed so genuinely glad to be there, for the opportunity to escape the unfortunate reality that they had lived in for so long. For a chance to start over.

When they reached the front of the line, Roman showed his confirmation pass to the woman, who smiled at him and let him board the bus. Remus soon followed, and the two of them plopped down onto one of the large seats towards the back. Only about half of the seats were filled up by the time everyone had gotten on.

Roman looked out the dusty window, admiring the morning light and the world that they were leaving behind. After just another minute or so the bus began its journey.

For a while, the two of them continued to sit in silence, just looking around at the bus, out the window, and at the other people riding it alongside them.

Eventually though, Remus started to get fidgety as he began twirling his short, messy hair around in his fingers. Roman suggested that they break out the deck of cards that Remus had brought, and he happily agreed. They played one of their all-time favorite games that they had made up as kids — they called it Resistance.

Pretty soon the both of them got hungry so Roman got out the food that he had packed, and they ate a breakfast of apples, bread and water. They kept playing Resistance until the bus pulled to a stop at the second pick-up location.

The two of them looked around outside, but the scenery seemed pretty similar to what they were used to. There seemed to be a few trees in the distance, but that was about the only difference. Another two-dozen people boarded the bus, and then they once again started driving but this time towards the city.

Both Roman and Remus dozed off after growing tired of playing the card game after several rounds. Before they knew it, the bus was driving up towards a massive building. Honestly, the word “building” didn’t do it justice, since it was far wider than any building that Roman had ever seen or even dreamed of. It went on and on and on to both the left and right, and he could just barely tell exactly where the gray, concrete walls ended.

Sat right in front of them, though, were two huge wooden doors that were covered in intricately carved designs. The doors opened to them, and the bus drove slowly just inside of the walls. They were soon followed by a second bus that came up the road behind them, and then the doors were shut, closing them inside.

Although the entrance was dark at first compared to the bright sunlight, after a moment Roman’s eyes adjusted and he saw that they were in a large enclosed area that fit them as well as two other buses that weren’t currently being used.

The woman at the front of the bus stood up and said, “Alright, everyone. Gather your belongings and follow me. I’ll be your guide for the next few days. My name is Allana, and just let me know if you have any questions, though I’m sure many of them will be answered soon enough in orientation.”

She went out the bus’s door and waited as the rest of the passengers followed her. Roman quickly shoved their few belongings back into their bags and stood up, barely able to stop his feet from sprinting towards the rest of the group waiting outside.

As Roman and Remus stepped off of the last stair of the bus, Allana motioned the group to follow her towards a door leading away from where they had entered.

The group followed her and as they filed into a new, large and brightly lit room, Allana said with a smile, “Welcome, new citizens, to Auranis.”


	2. C Block

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Remus attend their first ‘new citizens’ talk and get shown to their apartment to clean up for the rest of orientation

Just inside the entrance to the new room, a metal table and a security guard set up on each side. As the groups were led past the tables, each person got their bag searched and their pockets patted down by the intimidating-looking people in dark uniforms who tried their best to appear friendly even if it was ultimately not very successful. Thankfully, the process went smoothly and only the empty water bottle in Roman’s bag was taken, though he had been expecting that and many others were in the same situation.

Once people had gone through the security line, Allana led their group further into the room, where there were dozens of chairs set up. They were all facing the far side of the large space where a small platform was set up, presumably for a presenter to stand on. 

Allana told the group to sit on the right side, and everyone quickly found a seat. Roman and Remus chose to sit towards the back of the room. The other group from the second bus made their way to the left-side chairs and occasionally stole glances towards Roman’s group. 

After everyone got settled, Allana and the other group leader walked up to the platform and began speaking. “Hello, new citizens of Auranis! I’m Allana, this is Lark, and we’re going to quickly go through some important information for you to know.”

The guy, Lark, began, “To start off, let’s go over some of our basic rules. We have others, but these are the ones that will be most essential for you to keep in mind during your first few days here. We’ll be covering more of them over the next few days of your orientation, plus you’ll each have access to a community handbook in your Motives, which are in your welcome bags that you’ll find in your apartments.”

Allana said, “The first and most important rule is to never intentionally harm anyone. This goes for both physical and mental harm. The second rule is to follow your schedule closely. We take being late to things very seriously here, so do your best to be on time for things. Although we may be more lenient about being slightly late for orientation if you get lost, after you become fully integrated into Auranis, people will not be quite as forgiving and there will be consequences.” 

She spoke with a stern expression, which sent a pit into Roman’s stomach. Remus was notoriously late to everything, and Roman just hoped that Remus would be able to take this as seriously as he was.

The two leaders covered several other rules and guidelines, and both Roman and Remus started to feel a bit fidgety by the time they had finished with that portion of the presentation. 

Remus leaned over and whispered into Roman’s ear, “God, how long is this gonna go on? I’m already sick of hearing about rules, blah blah blah, nothing fun, blah blah blah.” Roman elbowed his brother in the side and glared at him, trying to tell him to shut up. Remus just rolled his eyes in response, and they both looked back towards the presenters.

“Now, everyone’s block, apartment number and a temporary passcode can be found on your confirmation passes. You’ll need to get them out later to see where your apartment is,” Allana announced.

Lark said, “I’m sure you’re all starting to feel a bit anxious to get your new lives started, so we won’t keep you for too much longer. The last thing we want to cover before breaking up into our two groups again is the itinerary for the next few days of orientation.”

Allana nodded and continued, “So, the plan for the rest of today is that you’ll walk with your group to find everyone’s apartment block, and then from there you’ll find your apartments. You’ll have an hour to set your things down, get cleaned up if you’d like to, and then meet up again as a group at the community center. That’s on level two, and don’t worry, we’ll show you how to get there when we go to find your blocks.”

As the two of them continued to talk, Roman had a hard time concentrating but he tried his best to retain as much information as possible. It seemed like they would probably be reminded about all the scheduling stuff again later, but he liked to have an idea of what was going to happen just in case they weren’t reminded. 

“Then for most of tomorrow we’ll be having a job fair and you’ll all be able to choose what jobs you want to have! Reps from each career will have booths set up around the community center, and you can all talk to them about jobs you’re interested in.” 

Honestly, Roman wasn’t sure what type of jobs would even be available, let alone anything that he could be good at. Doctor? Nope. Teacher? Probably not. Cook? He’d barely cooked anything in his life, nothing they ate back home really needed to be cooked. 

After another couple minutes, everyone was released into the two groups. Roman’s group followed Allana out a door onto an outdoor corridor. There was another building sat right in front of them with a large sign that read ‘Help Center’ plain as day. When Roman looked left, further down the corridor, he could see where the buildings met up with the outer concrete wall that encased the whole city. 

Allana announced, “Right ahead of us is the Help Center, which you can go to at any point if you have questions. Though, keep in mind that the majority of your questions will hopefully be answered over the next few days. If something is urgent and I’m not around, then you can come here, and they’ll give you a hand. For now, that’s all you need to know about the third floor, which is where we are currently. And now, follow me this way towards the elevators.”

Allana led the group towards the right and they soon reached six metal boxes with doors on them. They all filed inside the elevators and the doors shut automatically. Roman felt everything move suddenly and he tried to steady himself against Remus’s shoulder. This was certainly a first for both of them.

After only a few seconds, the elevator stopped moving and the doors popped open to reveal a brightly lit but enclosed hallway. Everyone stepped out of the elevators and re-merged into a single crowd. 

Roman couldn’t help but look around at the tall ceiling and the buildings around him. They were large and rectangular, and there were two pathways that split out in front of the group. Behind the elevators sat a huge building, and in front of them were several more buildings that each had two stories and many doors. Roman figured these were probably the blocks that Allana and Lark had mentioned earlier.

“Alright, so right behind us is the Community Center. There are entrances on this side as well as on the right and left, depending on which block you’re coming from. On the other side of the Community Center is the Kitchen and the Dining Hall, which is where we all have our meals.”

Allana motioned for everyone to turn and look at the other buildings. “And these are some of the blocks that you will be living in! These two are blocks G and F, so if any of you are in those blocks you can go right ahead and find your apartments from here!” Everyone pulled out their confirmation passes to see which block they were placed in.

“Right at the top you’ll see your block’s letter, then your apartment number, and then finally your temporary passcode to get inside. Apartments 1-100 are on the ground floor, and apartments 101-200 are on the top floor so you’ll need to take the stairs up to those ones. Remember, at four o’clock —which is in an hour— we’ll be meeting inside the Community Center to continue with orientation,” Allana cheerfully said.

A couple of people broke away from the group as they headed towards their new apartment buildings. Roman and Remus’s passes both read, “Block C, Apartment 127, Code 396521.” 

Allana led the group to the left, turning a corner around the Community Center, to find more people’s blocks. They passed by the side door leading into the Dining Hall, and then were faced with a building with a sign that said Block C. 

The twins split off from the group, which only had about two dozen people left in it by now. Roman and Remus walked around the front of the building as Roman examined the room numbers. They soon found apartment 27, with 127 right above it, so they walked up the stairs, punched in their code and went inside.  
Roman looked around the room and saw a set of bunk beds, each bed with a small duffel bag sitting on top of it. There was a tall, gray wardrobe positioned next to the beds. To his left, there was a round table with four chairs positioned around it, as well as a door leading into a walled-off section of the room that seemed to be most likely a bathroom.

Almost instantly, Remus clambered up to the top bunk and yelled, “This one’s mine!”

Roman groaned but gave in, setting down his backpack onto the lower bunk next to the duffel. He tentatively unzipped the top of the bag and discovered a strange device —probably that Motive thing they had mentioned earlier— laying on top of a pile of new clothes.

The screen of the Motive read, “Keep this on you at all times! Click the screen for more information.” Roman tapped the screen and explored some of the functions for a few moments before looking up to see Remus dangling over the edge of the bed and staring at Roman.

Remus asked, “What’s it say?”

Roman sighed and replied, “Keep this on you at all times. There’s some other stuff on here if you click the screen, like a map, a list of rules, an emergency line, and a few other things like that. I think the main thing for you now is the map.” Roman reached up and took Remus’s Motive, then showed him which buttons to click to get to the compound map.

Although Roman and Remus had been raised nearly the same by their mother, Remus had never really learned how to read very well. He never thought it was important, so he just didn’t retain it. Roman, on the other hand, loved reading and writing, and he picked up on it pretty quickly, too. One of the first things he hoped to do here was get Remus into a reading class or workshop or something like that. 

Roman grabbed a change of new clothes from the duffel bag and headed over towards the bathroom. He flipped on the light and saw there was a shower in the corner. He breathed a sigh of relief since he hadn’t had a proper shower in what felt like forever.

Once he had gotten all cleaned up and changed into the new clothes, he came back out into the room and saw Remus laying on his bunk, tossing his tennis ball against the ceiling, over and over and over.

“Remus, c’mon and get cleaned up. We don’t have much time left before we have to go meet up with the rest of the group,” Roman urged as he started putting away his things into the right half of the wardrobe.

Remus leapt off of the top bunk, not bothering to use the metal ladder, and grinned at Roman, saying, “I could definitely get used to that in the mornings!”

Roman practically shoved him into the bathroom along with a fresh set of clothes.

A little bit later, Remus came out of the bathroom smelling significantly better than when he went in. They finished getting ready, then grabbed their Motives and confirmation passes, and headed out the door towards the Community Center, right on time.


	3. New People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Remus have their first meal in the Auranis Dining Hall, then Roman explores their block during evening free time (and meets someone new!)

During the meeting, Allana and Lark showed the group a map of the compound. They discussed some of the facilities that were available, and to Roman it all sounded too good to be true. Even though he had been thinking about this for the past nine months since he and Remus had applied, it still felt completely unreal. Roman almost wanted to pinch himself to see if it was just a dream, but at the same time he didn’t want to wake up if it was.

They also covered some of the features on everyone’s Motives, including how to access their daily schedules as assigned by President Janus and his Community Council. Roman leaned over and helped Remus figure out how to get to the different menus, and luckily on the schedules there was a color code system, so he’d be able to at least figure out what was generally going on if Roman wasn’t there to help him out. Roman could hardly wait until Remus was finally taught how to read, since helping him with every little thing was going to drive him nuts if it kept up like this.

Once the orientation presentation was over, it was time for dinner, so everyone filed out into the corridor and headed towards the Dining Hall. When they stepped inside, Roman’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open slightly as he tried to take in everything. There were more people here than he’d ever seen in one place at the same time in his life. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of people already in the massive space, and it was only a few minutes past seven which was when dinner started being served.

Roman looked over at his brother, who was frantically looking around the room with an excited look on his face. Roman grinned a bit and continued to follow the rest of the group further into the room, walking past countless tables to get to the food stations positioned on the far wall.

Each station served a different type of food, and Roman passed by and looked at nearly all of the different choices before settling on one. Roman stood in line to get a pasta dish that he’d never seen before, and the person serving the food smiled at him kindly as he set the plate of pasta on Roman’s plastic tray. Roman nodded politely to him, muttering a small, “Thank you,” before looking around to try and find Remus who had gotten lost in the sea of people somewhere.

Roman searched through the crowd, everything blurring together a bit before he finally spotted his brother’s wild hair and dark green denim jacket. Remus was already sitting at a table in the corner across from a tall, dark-haired man Roman definitely had never met before. Remus seemed to be laughing, the other man smiled slightly, though he clearly had been trying to eat alone before being barraged by Remus’s presence.

Roman didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, so he walked around for a minute or so, trying to find someone he recognized from his bus group. He eventually spotted a group of around ten or so people that he remembered seeing on the bus, so he walked over to their table and joined them. He was met with polite smiles and soon they all were making small talk.

The pasta dish turned out to be pretty tasty, and the people around him seemed genuinely friendly. After talking, laughing, and eating for a little while, Roman felt himself start to relax for the first time in a very long time. There were so many new possibilities, and here his past didn’t have to define him. He was on the same starting level as everyone else, and anything could come from it. Roman smiled to himself, settling into the life that he was discovering to be his own.

When the dinner hour was nearly over and people were starting to leave the Dining Hall, Remus bounded over to Roman’s table and plopped down next to him. His tray smacked down onto the tabletop, his nearly empty plate nearly clattering off of the side. Remus said a little too loudly, “Hey, Princey!” Roman gave a soft smile in response to his childhood nickname. “I just met this guy named Logan and he’s so cool, oh my god I have to tell you all about him!” Remus bubbled.

Roman chuckled slightly at his brother’s typical behavior. Remus had a tendency to get really obsessed with certain things or people and would not let up about it. Roman sighed and said, “Alright, what’s he like?”

Remus rambled on about Logan for a solid five minutes, gesturing wildly and nearly smacking Roman in the face several times. By the time Remus stopped to catch his breath, they were among the last people left in the Dining Hall. Roman picked up his tray and walked towards the bins that were right by the exit. Remus followed suit and soon they were on their way back to their apartment.

“And he lives in B block, can you believe that? That’s right next to ours! It’s like, right there!” Remus exclaimed, pointing at B block in the distance. Roman hummed and headed up the stairs towards their door and typed in the passcode, letting them both inside.

They now had three hours of evening free time where they could do nearly whatever they wanted, so long as they stayed in their block. This left them just a few options: they could go to the gym since every block had their own, they could go meet some of their neighbors, or they could hang out in the apartment, though there wasn’t a ton to do there just yet.

Roman said, “I think I’m going to go to the gym, if you wanna come with.”

Remus thought for a moment, then replied, “Nah, I’ll just go meet some of the neighbors. I don’t really feel like the gym right now, but I’ll check it out tomorrow probably.”

Roman nodded, grabbed some exercise clothes from the wardrobe, then went into the bathroom and changed. He stepped out wearing a loose-fitting burgundy shirt and a pair of black, slightly stretchy, cotton-blend pants. He pulled on his pair of sneakers, pushed his Motive into the small pocket in the pants, and headed out the door.

The air outside was slightly chilly but not too uncomfortable. Roman walked down the steps to the first floor and turned to the left, eventually reaching the end of the block where there was a space between apartments to let people into the gym’s entrance. Roman tugged the door open and went inside, met with a smell of chemical cleaners mixed with sweat.

There was a ton of workout equipment scattered all around the large room, and there were probably two dozen other people working out already. Roman spotted and headed towards some weights, which were one of the few things he recognized in the space. He made a mental note to ask someone the next time he came in about some of the other interesting-looking equipment.

After about an hour or so of alternating stretching and weightlifting, Roman decided to head back and go to bed a bit early. He put the weights away and walked towards the exit but was stopped just before he reached the door by someone shouting to him, “Hey! Wait!”

Roman turned around, startled by the noise. He saw a stranger with slightly purple-tinted hair pulled back into a ponytail jogging up to him, holding a Motive in their outstretched hand. Roman breathed a sigh of relief as he took it, saying, “Oh, thank you so much, I didn’t even realize I had dropped it.”

The stranger nodded with a small smile and replied, “Yeah, I kind of figured that. Uh, I’m Virgil, they/them.”

They held out their right hand to Roman, who shook it and said, “Roman, he/him.” They both dropped their hands, Virgil crossing their sweatshirt-clad arms in front of their chest.

The two of them stood awkwardly for a moment before Virgil nonchalantly asked, “So, you’re one of the new citizens, right?”

Roman grinned and nodded, saying, “Is it that obvious? Yeah, we just got here this morning, so I’m still getting used to stuff like this.” He held up his Motive, giving it a slight jiggle, and then pushed it back into his pocket.

Virgil smirked and responded, “You’ll get used to it quickly. You kind of have to, otherwise you’ll get in trouble.” Roman wasn’t positive, but he thought he saw Virgil shudder slightly as they mentioned the bit about trouble. Although he was very curious, Roman decided this wasn’t the best time to ask about what they meant by that.

“I’ll keep that in mind. So, you live in this block? How long have you lived here?” Roman inquired. He looked slightly downwards into the other person’s eyes, which he noticed were made up of dozens of different shades of purple, almost like an amethyst crystal. They were positively mesmerizing.

“Yeah, I live in this block. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here,” Virgil said, playfully rolling their eyes a little. “And I’ve only been here for a year, since I was in the previous group to join.”

“Oh cool! Maybe you’ll have to show me around sometime,” Roman said, trying to be smooth but utterly failing as the other person just chuckled and looked down at the ground awkwardly, scratching the back of their neck. Roman blurted out, “Or not! You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Virgil replied, “Nah, I’d like that, actually. I’m in apartment 23, if you want to come hang out sometime, though I might not always be there. Anyway, I’ll see you around, Roman.” They turned around, walking back into the crowd of equipment to continue their workout.

Roman stood there for a moment, watching the retreating figure dressed in all black. Roman felt slightly stunned by the interaction, his face heating up slightly, but eventually he turned back and headed out the door, grinning.

When Roman reached the apartment, he noticed that Remus wasn’t back yet. Roman took a shower, got changed into his pajamas, and went to bed a bit early, figuring that Remus would come back eventually.


	4. Textiles and Petals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman goes to the job fair and quickly connects with the Crafters. He then goes on jobsite tours of the Crafters Workshop, the Classrooms, and the Greenhouses where he runs into Virgil

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Roman rubbed his eyes and looked around blearily at the dark room. For a moment, he couldn’t remember where he was. The huge dark shape above him made him want to just hide under his unfamiliar blanket, and the strange shadows around the room created by the faint lighting were hard to identify. Finally, things started clicking into place as Roman realized that the beeping was coming from the floor next to his bed, where he had left his Motive before going to bed the night before. 

He rolled onto his side, reached over the side of his bunk, and tapped at the screen that was trying to get his attention. On it read the words, “Wake up” and it had a large red button beneath it. Roman pressed it and the beeping on his device thankfully stopped. Remus’s, however, did not.

Roman’s brother was somehow miraculously still asleep. Roman rolled his eyes, he had always been such a deep sleeper that it would practically take a nuclear war to wake him up, and even then, Roman couldn’t be sure.

Roman tugged on his brother’s hand, which was hanging over the side of the top bunk. After a few sharp pulls, Remus jerked awake and loudly said, “Who–What? Oh.” He flopped over onto his back and shoved his noisy device off of the bunk. Roman luckily caught it before it hit the ground and pressed the off button. He shoved it back into the crook of Remus’s arm and then turned back to his own Motive.

In place of the alarm’s message now read Roman’s schedule for the day. It was all still orientation stuff, but it still made Roman smile as he remembered all that had happened in just the past day. They had actually escaped their lives; they had made it. Now, Roman just had to make sure they stayed there.

Roman turned on the lights, momentarily blinding the two boys, and was met with a thrown pillow to the face courtesy of Remus. Slowly, they got ready for the day, groggily getting changed into some of their new clothes and brushing their teeth.

After about thirty minutes, they were both ready to go and headed out the door to the Dining Hall. They both got bowls of some hot grain and cooked apples, along with some large glasses of water. As they turned around to try and find a table, Remus almost instantly grabbed Roman’s wrist and started dragging him in a beeline towards the table where the man from the previous day —Logan, was it?— was once again sitting.

Remus plopped them both down on the opposite side of the table with a huge grin and he said in greeting, “Hi again, Logan! This is my brother, Roman! Remember, I told you about him yesterday.”

Logan placed the book that he had been reading face-down on the table and adjusted his glasses as he looked up at the two of them with a slightly amused look on his face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Roman,” he said gently.

“You too,” Roman responded with a nod, and he began tucking into his breakfast as Remus started talking about who-knows-what. Roman was surprised by how patient Logan was with him, he just sat and listened the whole time, clearly paying attention since every so often he would interject with his own comments or questions. 

Most of the time, Roman only half-listened to his brother’s ramblings, and nearly everyone else they had ever met just tuned him out. It was certainly a first, seeing someone treat him with so much patience, with an almost interested look on his face. Remus was practically glowing from the attention. 

After a while, it was time for Roman and Remus to get to the job fair, so they said goodbye to Logan as he headed off to work in the library. Remus nearly ran to the Community Center, with Roman trailing behind him trying to catch up. They both doubled over giggling right outside the door where they stopped to catch their breath. 

Once they had calmed down a little —or at least Roman had— they headed inside and saw a multitude of booths with people milling around. Each booth covered a different career field, with two reps standing behind or next to each table to talk to the various people coming up to them to talk about their jobs. 

Roman hadn’t put too much thought into what he wanted to do once they actually got there since they hadn’t been told much about the options. Plus, he hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up too much, and he didn’t feel very qualified for pretty much anything. All the things he liked to do felt so… inconsequential that he figured that there wouldn’t be any use for them. 

Remus bounded off to the left side and started chatting away with one of the reps at the Kitchen booth. Roman shuddered slightly, thinking about what atrocities Remus would produce if given access to knives and fire. He shook his head to clear it and then looked around to examine some of his options. 

Roman decided to just start at the first booth on the right side, which was the Maintenance booth. He talked for a few minutes with one of the reps who usually spent his work time fixing things around the compound, anything from burned-out lightbulbs and chairs with chipped paint to repairing the water filtration system. Although it sounded interesting enough since every day would be something totally new, Roman felt that he just wasn’t very good at repairing things. Sure, he could patch up their clothes and mend the roof if the boards came loose, but it wasn’t something he loved to do, and he certainly didn’t know the first thing about repairing a water filtration system.

He moved on to the next booth, which was about Doctors. Roman learned that the Hospital was on the third floor and that different Doctors had different specialties. Some of them worked in short-term care, which was for taking care of more immediate and quick-fix issues, while others worked in long-term care. This was generally for treating a variety of diseases, and the long-term care Doctors were split up into physical and mental specialties, since the Hospital also had a Psych Ward for taking care of patients dealing with severe mental illnesses.

Roman could tell pretty quickly that he probably wasn’t cut out for a life as a Doctor. He just wasn’t really the type of person to do stuff like that, and things like needles made him squeamish. He decided to move on to the next booth.

As Roman approached the Crafters booth, a certain spark of excitement ignited inside of him as he felt the creative energy surrounding the people standing there. The two reps, yes, but also the five or so other people gathered around the booth chatting to one another and asking the occasional question. Roman walked up and was immediately greeted with a friendly smile from one of the reps who introduced herself as Dot.

After a long time and many questions, Roman felt like he had learned more about the Crafters career than his brain could handle mixed with all of his excitement. He learned a whole bunch about all the different specialties, ranging from things like ceramics and woodworking to his instant favorite: textile arts.

Apparently, the Crafters had a massive workshop down on the third level with separate spaces for each of the specialties and even sections where people could go to try and create new things if they felt like doing something different. Roman was certainly looking forward to the job site tours happening later in the day so he could see what they had been talking about. 

Once he had spent quite a while just at the Crafters booth, Roman decided to at least quickly check out the other booths to make sure he had seen all of the options before the job fair ended and they all had to go to lunch. He visited the booths for the Greenhouse, the Kitchen, Security, the Library, Teachers, and the Community Council.

Soon enough, eleven thirty rolled around and everyone headed over to the Dining Hall. Roman quickly caught up with some of the people he had been talking to at the Crafters booth and they all ate lunch together, joking and laughing and getting to know one another. He felt so instantly comfortable within the group, and far more relaxed than he had maybe felt in his entire life. It just felt so… right. 

An hour later, everyone either had to go back to work or to the job site tours. Each career opened up their workspace for a couple of tours throughout the afternoon, led by the reps that had been at the job fair that morning. 

Roman could hardly wait to see the Crafters workshop. He had already bonded quite a bit with Dot, since she was a textile arts specialist and Roman was pretty sure that was what he also wanted to do. Plus, their personalities just sort of clicked together. Roman felt beyond excited to meet some of the others and really find his place in Auranis, to find where he truly belonged in the world.

Each person had time to visit three different job sites, narrowed down from the dozen or so options that they had the chance to learn about at the job fair. Of course, Roman headed down to the third level to go to the Crafters tour first.

Once they stepped off the elevator and walked down the corridor for a minute or so, they reached the entrance to the Crafters Workshop. There were two large wooden doors sitting wide open, welcoming the fairly small group inside. Dot gestured everyone through the doorway, and they gathered in a circle just inside the entrance. 

They waited for a couple of minutes before starting, and another three people joined the group late since they had to find the space on their own. Finally, after making small talk and glancing around the large, fairly open-plan space with tall ceilings and quite a few people milling about at their workspaces, Dot began to address the group of about fifteen people. 

“Hello everyone, and welcome to the Crafters job site tour! We’ll be going over some of the basics about working down here, plus we’ll visit some of the workspaces of our various specializations. To start, there are about four hundred Crafters who work here, and there are six different specializations that each person can choose from,” Dot said cheerfully as she began to lead the group through the workshop.

The second rep, named Leslie, continued, “That’s right, if you decide to join the team of Crafters then on your first day on the job we’ll work with you to determine what the right fit for you would be. This is based on a couple factors, including previous experience, natural talents, and what we have a need for at the time. You can apply to switch to a different specialization, though, if after at least a month you decide that the one you were placed in doesn’t quite fit right.”

Roman bit the inside of his cheek. He had felt so set on working in textiles that he hadn’t even considered that he might not even get it. He didn’t have basically any previous experience in any of the specializations, so what if he’s not good enough? What if he just has to find a new career, if they find him so dreadfully incompetent that he doesn’t even deserve to be there? Roman shuddered and tried to re-focus on the tour.

They were now walking through the woodworking spaces, where piles of differently sized wooden planks were stacked along the walls and each person had their own table and set of tools. Roman looked at one of the guys —around his age, probably?— working at one of the tables that the group walked past. He was chatting with a girl at the table next to him, and they were both grinning and laughing. They seemed happy here. Roman wondered if that could be him, if he could be happy here, too. 

Pretty soon the group reached the far corner of the workshop where the textile arts specialists worked. Roman’s eyes widened as he saw shelves of different fabrics and threads all lined up beautifully, and countless sewing machines with people behind them. His eyes darted around, trying to take in every detail. There were many different sizes of mannequins along one wall, and a few scattered throughout the space as people used them beside their workstations. Many of the workers had a pair of scissors on a long strip of fabric looped around their necks for easy access, and sewing pins clamped between their lips so they could pull them out at a moment’s notice. It all seemed absolutely perfect to Roman.

The hour passed by too quickly for Roman’s taste, and pretty soon it was time for him to head off to the next tour. He hadn’t thought too much about the other tours he would go on, but he decided to go to the Teacher tour since maybe he would get the chance to learn about how to get Remus into a reading class. He took the elevator up to the first level and after a few minutes found the entrance to Classroom #1 where a group of about ten people were already gathered. 

To be honest, Roman kind of zoned out for most of the tour. He just wasn’t all that interested, but he tried to grasp at least the basic concepts of how education worked there. It was relatively straight-forward, most teachers taught the children who were required to go to school every day while their guardian(s) were at work. Aside from that, they also conducted classes about various topics for the adults who either want to learn more about a topic or who never got a proper education growing up. The classes were generally at least a month long at a time and happened after work, and then they also offered workshops every weekend to focus on more short-term learning. 

It all made sense to Roman, but he still was a little confused on how to sign up for classes. After the tour had finished and the reps were heading back to the first classroom to meet the next tour group, Roman caught the attention of one of them to ask about classes for Remus.

“Hi! Patton, was it?” Roman asked the friendlier looking one with curly blonde hair and round glasses. During the tour they had all found out that Patton had lived in the compound since the beginning of Auranis twelve years ago, so he certainly knew a thing or two about how things worked around here. 

“Yup! What can I do for you?” Patton replied with a grin.

“Well, I was wondering if you have any classes to teach adults how to read? You see, my brother never bothered to learn how to read and I think it would be really helpful for him. Is there anything like that here?”

Patton smiled and reached into his pocket to pull out his Motive. “Yes, we have reading classes year-round. A lot of adults come here without much of a background in reading and other subjects, so we could help get him into a class right away if that works for him.” Patton’s fingers pressed a couple of buttons on his device before he turned the screen to face Roman. “Here’s the information for all the classes we have available now or coming up.”

Patton showed Roman how to find the menu on his own Motive, and then a couple of people started coming into the room for the last tour.

“Oh shoot, I’ve got to go, but thank you so much. It was great to meet you, Patton!” Roman shoved his Motive back into his pocket and nearly ran out the door, just barely seeing a waving Patton in his peripheral vision. 

“Bye!” Patton said cheerfully as Roman headed off to the Greenhouses down the hall.

Just like the Teacher tour, Roman wasn’t all that interested in the Greenhouses but figured it was nearby and would hopefully be interesting enough. He’d always liked seeing new plants since back home there weren’t very many, and he was curious about how they grew food here since there was a huge concrete ceiling covering the entire compound.

He rushed down the hallway for a minute or so before reaching the main doors to the Greenhouses. Luckily, he had mostly memorized the map by now from looking at it on his Motive. He pulled one door open and snuck inside, trying to not draw attention to himself since the tour had already begun. Roman pulled up to the back of the group and then nearly gasped when he got the chance to take in his surroundings.

There were rows upon rows upon rows of ceiling-high shelves where different types of plants were growing under special lights that were positioned strategically above each plant. There were so many colors, a couple that Roman had never even seen before and many that he had only seen a handful of times in his life.

As they walked down some of the rows of plants, Roman trailed along in a trance, trying to remember as much as he could about each plant. They were all so beautiful in their own ways, from the rounded, buttery-looking petals of these flowers to the angular, deep green leaves of that plant. 

Roman could hardly wrap his head around the fact that all these different varieties existed, let alone could live in the same environment. Granted, the reps had explained that certain types of plants needed slightly different environments to survive, so each got a different amount of water and light, but the whole thing still totally blew Roman’s mind. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar figure dressed in all black, purple hair pulled back in a ponytail. Roman turned to look at them, and saw Virgil looking back at him and giving a small, shy wave. They seemed almost embarrassed since they quickly dropped their hand and tried to look busy. Roman waved back with a smile, trying to convey that he was happy to see them again. Virgil’s shoulders dropped slightly in a relieved movement, and they walked closer to the group to walk near Roman at the back.

“I didn’t drop my Motive again, did I?” Roman whispered jokingly before Virgil had a chance to say anything. 

They both laughed quietly, and Virgil responded, “Nope, not this time.” There was a pause before they continued, “So, do you know where you’re gonna work? You don’t exactly strike me as a plants type of guy.”

Roman smiled and said, “Yeah, I think I’m going to join the Crafters, but honestly this place is amazing. Definitely a close second, I never knew plants could look like these.” They passed by a particularly vibrant section of bushes with different types of brightly colored berries growing from them.

Virgil looked around, admiring the growth around them. “Yeah. I love it here. I didn’t know there were so many colors before I came here, and then I guess I just never left.” The two of them walked in silence —or at least the closest to silence they could get since the reps were still talking to the rest of the tour group up ahead of them.

Virgil leaned slightly closer to Roman and whispered, “This is my favorite one, coming up. The fruit tastes like magic.” The closeness made Roman’s face heat up slightly even though he wasn’t quite sure why. Virgil pointed to a medium-sized plant with long, dark green leaves and round purple fruits. Virgil slowed their walking slightly —Roman matching their pace— and slid two of the fruits into their dark jacket pockets. 

Roman’s eyes widened as he whispered, “Are you allowed to do that?”

Virgil grinned, started walking again, and then whispered back, “If you don’t get caught.” They reached over and grabbed Roman’s hand, pressing one of the slightly-less-than-fist-sized fruits into his palm. His skin felt like electricity was running up his arms, and he suddenly couldn’t quite form words so he just stuck with sticking the fruit into his own pocket and decided he would try it later. 

Virgil glanced up at Roman and smirked at his beet-red face. “I gotta get back to work, but just remember to peel it first. The skin is kind of bitter,” they whispered before turning and starting to head back.

“See you around, Virgil,” Roman said after them, and was met with an over-the-shoulder glance, a smirk, and a small wave.


	5. Ping Pong and Recklessness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After signing up for their new jobs, Roman and Remus attend their first Community Meeting where the particularly charismatic president really wows Remus. Later, Roman runs into Virgil and they hang out for a while during free time and dinner. Roman and Remus get into a small argument about recklessness and breaking the rules after only a few days in their new life.

After breakfast the next day, Roman and Remus headed over to the Community Center. Roman glanced over to his brother who was walking beside him, and asked, “So, I know you said you were deciding between working in the Kitchen or on Maintenance, what did you end up choosing?”

Remus grinned wildly. “I’m gonna go with the Kitchen, they said they work with fire all the time!” Roman tried to smile supportively but he couldn’t hide his slight grimace. Remus and fires had always turned out poorly in the past, but hopefully he’d get some actual proper training so it wouldn’t result in too many accidents.

They walked inside the building and walked towards their retrospective booths. Each of the dozen or so booths from the day before were once again set up, this time without any reps and with tablets laying on each table, waiting for the new recruits. Roman headed over to the Crafters table and added his name to the list. 

His eyes slid over towards the Greenhouse table briefly, but he snapped them back to his own booth as soon as he realized they had wandered. No, he was to be a Crafter. Maybe he’d be able to visit the Greenhouses or something, see those gorgeous plants and enchanting atmosphere again. But he reassured himself with the memory of how happy the workers in the Crafters Workshop had seemed when they had gone on the tour the day before. That would be him. That was where he was meant to go and where he was built to thrive.

Roman pulled his shoulders back and stepped away from the table to let someone else put their name down on the list. He gave a polite smile to the person before he turned to go make sure Remus had figured out what to do. Roman spotted his brother across the room, waiting for someone else to finish signing up.

Roman walked over and stood next to Remus, bumping his shoulder before he said, “Hey, rat. You just write your name on the next available line, by the way.”

Remus gave him a hard look and replied, “Yeah, I know, Roman. I could’ve figured that out myself.” 

Roman was slightly taken aback before responding, “Oh, ok. Sorry. I just wanted to be sure.” Remus’s expression softened slightly as he glanced around to the couple of people milling around the Kitchen booth. Roman said, “Alright, well, I’ll leave you to it then.” 

Roman backed away awkwardly and headed over to where about two dozen or so people had gathered in a group. They had all finished signing up for their new jobs and were now just waiting for the next part of orientation to get going. He found two other people who had also signed up to be Crafters and started chatting with them, though honestly at this point all this small talk was starting to blend together. He had only ever known a handful of people during his whole life before coming to Auranis, and there were almost no situations where one would just chat with a stranger. It was strange, luckily it wasn’t too hard, but it was getting a little exhausting.

After about ten minutes or so, nearly everyone had finished signing up and had joined the large group in the center of the room. All the signups would be processed throughout the day and the new citizens would start their first day of work the next day, which was a Monday. Then, there would be a couple of days of training and people would figure out which specialty would be a good fit for them if they had chosen a career with specialties.

-

After spending the majority of the day touring the third level and going to more orientation meetings, it was finally time for the new citizens to attend their first Community Meeting at five o’clock. They were all led back to the Community Center, which was now filled with a couple thousand chairs and many, many people getting ready to fill them. 

The seats were pretty packed together so everyone was able to fit inside the space, and Roman was honestly amazed by how many people actually were able to be in that room at the same time. Basically everyone who lived in Auranis had to come to these Community Meetings each week, so there should be nearly five thousand people all seated in this huge room. 

Roman and Remus found a seat towards the middle of the room, along with some other people from their orientation group that they had chatted with throughout the past couple of days. Once basically everyone was situated and the noise level in the room had lowered a bit, a fairly short man wearing a black hat and a nice blazer over a golden-colored vest and a dark shirt. He was also wearing some golden gloves that matched his vest, plus black pants and shoes. It all seemed unnecessarily fancy compared to everyone else dressed in t-shirts and pants, the occasional jacket or other clothing item. 

The man cleared his throat, and the room fell silent. Roman glanced around in wonder. The man began, “Hello, everyone, and welcome to the new citizens who are joining us today for their first Community Meeting. I am President Janus, and one of the co-founders of Auranis. I am so glad to see all of you here today, and I hope everything has been satisfactory so far. Please do let us know if there’s anything we can help you with.”

Remus let out a small but reverent, “Woah,” as he listened to the man speak, seemingly entranced by his very presence.

Meanwhile, Roman couldn’t help but wonder who “we” was referring to. The man —President Janus, apparently— seemed a little too high-and-mighty to be personally taking constructive criticisms from the everyday citizen. He supposed that the Help Center was there, and the Community Council was intended to improve the community, but neither of them really seemed like the right place to bring any complaints that one might have. Regardless, he tried to clear his mind since it was pointless to think about that. He didn’t really have any issues yet, and he hoped that things would stay like that. Roman hoped that he would never need to figure out who “we” was referring to, if anyone.

Janus continued to address the crowd of intent listeners as he provided updates and reminders about various aspects of life in Auranis. Throughout his speech, Roman noticed Remus out of the corner of his eye, practically hanging onto every word. His wide eyes were trained so intensely on the stage in front of them, more focused than Roman had ever seen his brother before. Remus’s chin was propped up on one of his hands, his elbow balanced on his knee. His mouth hung open just slightly in a look of pure awe and admiration.

Roman nudged his brother with his elbow, posing an eyebrow raise in an attempt to ask what was up with him. Remus looked over at him with eyes that were positively filled with wonder. Almost… worship-like. He mouthed the words _‘He’s amazing,’_ to Roman and then drew his eyes back towards the stage. A pit started to form in Roman’s stomach. Something just didn’t rub him the right way about this, but he couldn’t quite place what it was. 

Nonetheless, Roman tried to once again clear his head for the remainder of the talk. When President Janus had finished and began to leave the stage, the crowd erupted suddenly into cheers, with Remus apparently trying to cheer the absolute loudest. Roman had to cover his ears as it became a bit too loud right next to him for his own comfort levels. 

Roman shot a hard look at his brother, who just tilted his head and asked, “What?” Roman just shook his head slightly and looked away, not wanting to dampen Remus’s spirit too much. He didn’t technically have a reason to be upset at him, after all. Everything was fine. Everything should be great, actually. Everything WAS great.

All of the people slowly started to file out of the room towards all areas of the compound. Many people headed up to the first level for the hour of free time that most citizens had before dinner. Some people had to work, depending on their shifts, but the majority finished work at four o’clock. 

Roman decided to head up to the Rec Center on the first level, following the crowds up the elevators. Remus had disappeared somewhere, and honestly Roman was kind of glad to not have to hear him ramble about either how great President Janus was or how much he liked Logan. Remus could just be a bit too invested in certain people, sometimes.

They had taken a tour of the first level the day before, but they had gone through the Rec Center so quickly that Roman hadn’t really been able to absorb what was in there and he wanted to check it out. When he reached the entrance, he started wandering around and looking at everything around him. There were a bunch of tables set up with chess sets and other board games, and some pool tables. In a side room there was a small-ish climbing wall along with some other exercise-type activities that seemed far more fun than the gyms in each of the blocks. 

He went back into the main space and continued exploring. He saw some booth seating all along the far wall, and some other comfortable-looking chairs and beanbag cushions peppered throughout the room for people to relax in. Roman weaved between different activities, taking it all in as people started to fill the space. 

As he reached a corner with some ping pong tables, he noticed a figure clad curled up in one of the beanbags nearby wearing all black. They were tucked around a book, apparently absorbed in its contents since they didn’t even notice Roman until he spoke aloud.

“Hey, Virgil! What’cha got there?”

Virgil nearly leapt out of their skin, almost decking Roman’s lower leg out of reflex. They quickly regained their composure and placed their book on the floor, trying to ignore Roman’s teasing laughter. 

“Oh my god you scared me,” they said, running a hand through their hair which fell in loose waves around their shoulders rather than in their usual ponytail. 

“Yeah, I kind of gathered that,” Roman chuckled, sitting down on the floor next to Virgil. “Though I should probably thank you for restraining yourself from bruising the hell out of my shins.”

Virgil rolled their eyes and Roman saw a slight grin tug at the edge of their mouth. “Oh, shut up,” they muttered.

Roman smiled and asked, “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question: what’cha got there?”

Virgil’s eyes lit up as they grabbed the book and showed the cover to Roman. “It’s my favorite book, actually. I’ve read all of this author’s books, and they’re all great, but this one is definitely the best in my opinion. You should totally read it sometime,” they said excitedly. Ok, clearly he had hit a jackpot with this conversation topic.

After the two of them talked for a little while about books and reading —a shared passion between them, thankfully— Roman remembered the rest of the room and came up with an idea. He sat up a little and asked, “Do you wanna play ping pong before we have to go down to dinner?”

Virgil nodded and agreed. Roman stood up and offered a hand to Virgil who was slightly struggling to get out of the beanbag chair, though they were clearly trying not to show it too much. They looked up at the proffered hand and after a moment of hesitation, took it. Roman pulled them to standing, and then stepped back and let go of their hand. Both of them smiled a little but glanced around awkwardly for a second before remembering what they had planned to do.

Roman led Virgil over to the closest ping pong table and grabbed one of the paddles and a ping pong ball from the center of the table while Virgil grabbed the other paddle. They played for about half an hour, talking a little here and there but mostly just focusing on the game and trying not to make fools of themselves in front of the other. Neither of them were particularly good at the game, but they both were good enough that it was pretty fun and had a twinge of competition. 

At seven o’clock, both of their Motives beeped to remind them that dinner was starting. They put things back where they had found them, Virgil grabbed their book, and they headed downstairs with wide grins and slightly flushed faces.

Roman followed Virgil into the Dining Hall, they both got a rice dish with vegetables from one of the food stations and sat down at a table along one of the walls. The whole meal was filled with jokes, getting to know each other better, and eating the surprisingly good food. Roman was glad he had trusted Virgil’s taste, since getting the rice dish had been Virgil’s suggestion. 

Although the conversation was certainly enjoyable, Roman still wanted to know so much more about the mysterious person sitting in front of him. They hadn’t really talked about anything super personal, staying fairly surface-level. Of course, Roman didn’t want to push them too much in case that made them uncomfortable or something, but that still didn’t stop his curiousness. He hoped that he would earn more insight eventually, that one day they’d feel comfortable enough with Roman to tell him more. One day at a time, though. Thinking too far ahead again, as usual. 

Once dinner had wrapped up and they were walking towards C block, Roman asked if Virgil had anything planned for their free time in their block. Virgil gave a small smile and replied, “Yeah, actually, I have some stuff that I have to work on.”

Roman looked down at his hands and nodded, “Oh, ok, yeah that’s cool. We should hang out another time, then, if that’s ok with you?”

Virgil glanced over at Roman and said, “Yeah, that’s definitely ok with me.” They reached Virgil’s apartment and they said, “See you later, Roman,” as they ducked inside their apartment after casting a dazzling smile towards him. Roman trudged upstairs to his own apartment, which was pretty close by. He had hoped that they’d be able to hang out more, so now he wasn’t really sure what to do until he got tired. 

When Roman opened his door, he was greeted by Remus… and Logan? They were sitting at the small table to the left of the room. “Hey, uh, what’s going on? Don’t you live in B Block? Won’t we get in trouble for you being in the wrong block?” he said in confusion, shutting the door behind him and leaning against it.

Logan chewed his lip slightly, looking slightly nervous as Remus replied happily, “Don’t worry about it! He can get back pretty easily since it’s just one block over.” Logan looked down at his hands which were folded on the table in front of him.

Roman paused to think for a moment. “Are you sure that’s ok? I really don’t want us to get in trouble. Or Logan, for that matter. Why can’t y’all just hang out tomorrow? It’s only our third day here and you’re already breaking rules again, Remus.” He started to feel stressed and began pacing between the door and the beds. 

Remus just brushed off his concern with a careless flick of the hand and said, “If you’re gonna be so uptight about it, just go to the gym or something. Then if we get caught —which we won’t— you don’t have to be here for it.”

Roman glared at his reckless brother but decided that would be his best option so he quickly changed into his workout clothes in the bathroom. He knew that once Remus got stuck on an idea like this, there was no persuading him otherwise. It would be a wasted effort. He knew, because this was certainly not the first time something like this had happened. But it felt so different here. This was putting both of their entire futures in Auranis on the line, and for what? To hang out with Logan for a little bit more? First it started with this and then Roman knew it could only get worse from here. 

He was seething as he stepped out into the room again, glaring daggers at Remus, his brother who was putting both of their lives in danger for something as silly as this. Remus rolled his eyes as Roman stomped out, shoving the door closed behind him. 

Once he reached the block’s gym, he already started to feel a little better. The exertion from his workout also helped, and by the time he returned to the apartment about two hours later he just felt drained. No more anger. Probably. Maybe a tiny bit, but it was more towards the normal amount of anger he felt towards his brother. 

When he got back inside, the lights were off and Remus was already asleep. Logan was gone, thankfully. Even though he seemed like a cool enough guy, Roman just didn’t want to put up with whatever was going on between him and Remus. It just felt really weird, and Roman wasn’t entirely sure why. He didn’t feel very sure of a lot of things lately, but that didn’t matter much right now. 

Now, he needed to get plenty of beauty sleep so that tomorrow could be as wonderful as possible! It was his first day as a Crafter, and he could hardly wait. Pretty much as soon as Roman’s head hit the pillow he was out like a light, letting the grace of sleep fall over him.


End file.
